I AM responding to a letter (LT, April 12) headed ‘Keep religion out of the classroom’.

As it is an opinion, I cannot submit a formal rebuttal but I was utterly confounded by the statement.

How can religion be removed from the classrooms when at the very least it teaches children about the multi-cultural society that surrounds them?

As a global community we are varied not only in our appearances but also our beliefs, our motivations and our mentalities – surely from an academic view alone this will provide a healthy and diverse education.

I would grant that perhaps the subject itself requires a new name – Philosophy, or World Cultures, for example – so that it is more topical and inclusive of all theologies and views.

Removing it altogether from the classrooms would be wholly damaging, aiding only in increasing ignorance and intolerance.

I offer a quote from philosopher, artist and poet Khalil Gibran which, in my opinion, is a view we should all strive to achieve in our lives: ‘I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church.

For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit.’ Nadeem Shahid, aerospace design engineer (via email).